...if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal." JFK

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Republican Honesty?

It would be a whole lot easier to take the current Republican wingnuttery if Republicans would only be honest with the American people. "We don't want to remove terrorist prisoners held at Gitmo to the US mainland because the prisoners might have legal options under the US Constitution". That is an honest argument. Please don't give us this stupid talk about "releasing" terrorists into the USA as if they would be free to roam our streets. Bush put the captured terrorists in Gitmo simply to remove their rights under our laws.

Or, how about the "waterboarding isn't torture argument"? Republicans have to claim that waterboarding isn't torture because if they admitted that it is torture they know they would be breaking the law. We all know that Republicans are the party of law and order and the rule of law, at least that is what they claim. Stop giving us this stupid "enhanced interogation" nonsense. If you truly believe torture works and that we need to use torture to defend our country, please be honest and just say so. Maybe you might even work to change the law so torture will be legal in the USA. I bet they would love that in Texas. It would be awesome to torture someone before we execute them, wouldn't it? Why bother with jury trials? We can just torture suspects to make them admit the truth about what they did.

Lastly, the argument that President Obama and Democrats are "taking away our freedoms" is just absurd. Exactly which freedoms have been taken away? Are we talking about the right of Habeas corpus, or the right to be free from warrantless wiretapping or the right to hold someone in prison indefinitely without the right to legal council? Sorry, but those were things Republicans took away or did you just forget about that? Ok, I admit that Democrats want to take away the freedom of not having access to healthcare, you got us on that one.